Thursday, April 6, 2017

Sylvia Martinez: 3 Mistakes Teachers Make About Tinkering (and more)

Episode 49 of the 10-Minute Teacher Podcast

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

Today Sylvia Martinez @smartinez co-author of Invent to Learn talks about tinkering today. Some teachers have a misconception that kids just pick up and play with materials and learn, but it is a little bit more nuanced than that. Sylvia does a fantastic job of helping us understand the drawbacks, possibilities, and essential nature of tinkering in the classroom.

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Today’s giveaway contest is Sylvia’s book Invent to Learn. You can enter the drawing by suggesting a guest for the show, following Sylvia on Twitter or other ways. You have one week to enter, and then we draw! Click here.

In today’s show, we’ll discuss:

How to make time for tinkering

Assessing making and tinkering

The risks of using reflection as your only tool for assessing making

Three of the biggest mistakes teachers make when tinkering

When to let students struggle and when to step in

I hope you enjoy this episode with Sylvia!

Selected Links from this Episode

Full Bio

Sylvia Martinez

Sylvia Libow Martinez is a co-author of Invent To Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering the Classroom helping teachers bring the exciting tools and technology of the Maker Movement to classrooms worldwide.

Previously, Sylvia was President of Generation YES, evangelizing student leadership through modern technology. Sylvia also headed product development for consumer software, video games, and educational games at several software publishing companies.

Martinez started her career designing high-frequency receiver systems and navigation software for GPS satellites.She holds a masters in educational technology from Pepperdine and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from UCLA.

Today’s Contest

I like to support people who support the show. To do this, when guests are willing – we host a giveaway! Thanks Sylvia for donating one of your books to a lucky listener! Use the widget below to enter!Invent to Learn Book Giveaway Contest